Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
Groundwater is also increasingly relied upon by growing cities
and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future
sustainability of California’s overall water supply. In an
average year, roughly 40 percent of California’s water supply
comes from groundwater.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local
and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable
groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.
The Port of Los Angeles will need to clean up widespread water
contamination in the city’s harbor by shoring up sewage
treatment operations, according to a settlement approved by a
federal judge. The settlement was the result of
a lawsuit filed by the organization Environment
California last summer accusing the port of violating the
Clean Water Act by unleashing toxic pollutants
into the San Pedro Bay. The group maintained that the port
had conducted more than 2,000 illegal wastewater discharges in
the previous five years alone — releases that
routinely surpassed limits on fecal bacteria, copper and
other contaminants. The settlement approved on Tuesday
tasks the port with improving its management and treatment of
stormwater and groundwater,
through provisions requiring the elimination of fecal bacteria
from the groundwater.
A small panel managed to extract a glassful of clean water from
the bone-dry air of Death Valley in California, which suggests
that the device could provide the vital resource to arid
regions. The atmosphere over extremely dry land can hold large
volumes of water, but extracting this in significant quantities
without power is difficult. In the past, researchers have come
up with innovative ways to tap into this reservoir, such as
fog-catching nets made from simple mesh fabrics or spider
silk-like artificial fibres, but they have struggled to make
them work effectively in real-world conditions. Now,
Xuanhe Zhao at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
his colleagues have developed a power-free water-collecting
device that is about 0.5 metres tall and 0.1 m across. It is
comprised of a glass panel that contains an absorbent hydrogel,
a jelly-like substance made from long-chain polymers, and
lithium salts that can store water molecules.
Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the
Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed
upstream into the long-blocked waters along the
California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows
considered crucial to the fish’s future. The return of salmon
to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal
and a measure of the project’s success. However, a problem
emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles
upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam,
the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a
fish ladder that’s supposed to help with fish passage, but it
didn’t prove to work. While many proponents of dam removal
say they’re thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of
the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn’t reach before
the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable.
New subsidence guidelines from the Department of Water
Resources are expected to drop on San Joaquin Valley water
managers any day, a prospect that has them both hopeful and
worried. The intent of the guidelines is to provide clarity
within the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA), which requires overdrafted regions to
enact plans to bring aquifers into balance by 2040. One of
SGMA’s primary goals is to halt subsidence, land
sinking. Excessive groundwater pumping has caused huge
swaths of the San Joaquin Valley to sink, damaging canals,
roads and increasing flood risks. Some areas have collapsed on
such a large scale, the phenomenon can be seen from space,
earning the nickname “the Corcoran
bowl.” Subsidence, though, has been a tricky devil to
manage.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Forest Service
cannot transfer land containing Oak Flat, a site sacred to the
Western Apache, to a copper mining company until two cases
against the project are settled after the Forest Service
publishes its final environmental review for the project. …
The legal battle over Oak Flat, known in Apache as Chi’chil
Biłdagoteel, has been one of the most high-profile mining cases
in the country over the past decade. … It would …
use as much water each year as the city of
Tempe, home to Arizona State University and 190,000
people. It would pull water from the same tapped-out
aquifer the Phoenix metro area relies on,
where Arizona has prohibited more extraction except for
exempted uses like mines.
You may have heard of the term subsidence but what does it
mean? Subsidence is the sinking of land which can be caused by
various factors including groundwater pumping. In California,
subsidence has been documented for over a century and is a
growing issue that impacts our water infrastructure and the
communities who rely on it. This summer, DWR plans to release a
draft best management practices document to help local agencies
minimize subsidence impacts around the state. For more
information about DWR’s efforts to sustainable manage
groundwater and reduce the impacts of subsidence visit DWR’s
Groundwater Management page.
The small city of Lemoore recently joined the legal fight
against the powerful state Water Resources Control Board over
groundwater sanctions issued against Kings
County farmers by the state last year. The Lemoore City Council
on May 22 submitted an “amicus brief,” or friend of the court
motion, in support of an injunction that has, so far, held
those groundwater sanctions at bay. The injunction was
ordered by a Kings County Superior Court judge as part of a
lawsuit filed against the Water Board by the Kings County Farm
Bureau. The state appealed the injunction, which is now under
review by the 5th District Court of Appeal. … Because of
that injunction, local farmers have avoided having to meter and
register their wells at $300 each, report extractions and pay
$20 per acre foot pumped to the state. The sanctions were
issued after the Water Board placed the region on probationary
status in April 2024 for not having an adequate groundwater
plan.
The state Water Resources Control Board Tuesday passed a
resolution to send the Chowchilla subbasin back under the
purview of the Department of Water Resources. So far, it
is the only subbasin of seven in the San Joaquin Valley to have
succeeded in making the U-turn away from potential probationary
status. Water Board members noted that early engagement
from Chowchilla’s four groundwater sustainability agencies
(GSAs) was key. … The Chowchilla subbasin has
experienced more than five feet of subsidence in the last
decade alone, especially in its western portion where a
significant layer of Corcoran clay exists. In its newest
groundwater plan, managers cranked down allowable groundwater
pumping with both voluntary and mandatory policies, capping
subsidence rates at two feet in 2025, with a goal of zero
subsidence after 2040.
… Local agencies are hosting community workshops to explain
how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
works—and why it matters to you. The act, also known as SGMA,
is a California law that requires local water agencies to
manage groundwater to prevent overuse and water scarcity.
… Dan Bartel, Engineer Manager at RRB, says: “SGMA
requires that we coordinate not just amongst the public
agencies, but with the public—because in the public, there are
so many private pumpers. We’re required to get input from those
beneficial users and incorporate their opinions, thoughts,
questions, and concerns into our plans so we can, as a
community, reach sustainability by 2040.” Starting last summer,
GSAs held workshops across Kern County. More recently, they’ve
been hosting pop-up events—going to the community rather than
waiting for the community to come to them.
Researchers at Stanford are hoping to jump start a water
revolution in California. The goal is to rapidly expand the
areas where we store water – not by building reservoirs,
but by returning millions of gallons back into the ground in a
new and efficient way. … A recent study found the
elevation of San Jose has risen slightly over the decades,
while dozens of other cities around the country are steadily
sinking. One common factor is groundwater. … Valley
Water manages a sophisticated system of ponds and groundwater
injection wells to help replenish the area’s aquifers. While
sites, like the Laguna Seca basin at Coyote Valley are being
conserved as open space, allowing additional stormwater to sink
into the water table. These are long term strategies that are
paying off. … And now, researchers at Stanford’s Doerr
School of Sustainability are hoping to use ground-breaking
technology to expand groundwater recharge across California’s
Central Valley.
From farmers to winemakers, commercial irrigators pumping from
the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Basin may soon need to pay for
their water use. On Tuesday, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater
Authority voted unanimously to send notices of the proposed
rates to impacted property owners, giving them the opportunity
to protest the fees. If a majority of recipients submit a
written protest, the agency can’t implement the rates. The
California Department of Water Resources considers the basin
“critically overdrafted.” Users pumped about 25,500 acre-feet
of water more than was returned to the underground reservoir in
2024, according to the most recent annual report on the basin.
… The fees would fund administrative tasks like
monitoring wells and writing annual reports along with programs
designed to balance the basin. If passed, the rate structure
will last for five years.
Fallout from the ongoing who-owes-what dispute over the still
sinking Friant-Kern Canal led to some awkward and very
carefully worded moments during a meeting to discuss
replacement pump stations. At its May 22 meeting, the Friant
Water Authority ultimately voted to restart the bidding process
to build four replacement pump stations to deliver water from
the canal to the Saucelito Irrigation District. But the
board added some strings. It will only start construction if:
Litigation filed by Saucelito and its sister districts,
Porterville and Terra Bella, regarding the “Cost Recovery
Methodology” was resolved through a settlement or
verdict; Friant had sufficient cash on hand and certainty
of funding sources necessary to cover future payments for the
parallel canal and pump stations. The vote elicited a
mixed reaction.
Parts of Tehama County, including around Red Bluff, Corning and
Antelope, are sinking, officials have discovered, prompting an
emergency meeting to decide next steps to intervene. In a
statement announcing the June 3 meeting, county officials said
they found the mid- to southwestern part of Tehama had
“observable land subsidence on a scale that has never been
recorded.” … In Tehama County, some of the area’s
groundwater dried up during years of heavy drought, according
to the announcement. The soil is now collapsing into the cavity
left by the absent water, making the ground above it
sink. Other factors are further stressing what’s left of
the underground water supply, according to the county. These
include changes in agricultural practices and less surface
water available from lakes, creeks and other water bodies.
Arizona’s governor and the GOP-controlled Legislature are at
odds over regulating groundwater pumping in the state’s rural
areas — and time is running out. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs
stood with local Republican leaders at the start of this year’s
session, optimistic that Republicans in the Legislature would
embrace her proposal to create rural groundwater management
areas. But almost four months later, talks have stalled and
frustration has mounted as both sides try to find a solution to
conserve water that’s increasingly becoming more scarce
amid a prolonged drought. Negotiators have not met
since early April, Hobbs’ office said. Around the same time,
Republicans and some interest groups grew frustrated with a
separate proposal by the Arizona Department of Water Resources
to slash overdraft in the Willcox Basin by a percentage that is
“unattainable,” said Sen. Tim Dunn, one of the Republican
negotiators.
The Colorado River basin has lost 27.8m acre-feet of
groundwater in the past 20 years, an amount of water nearly
equivalent to the full capacity of Lake Mead, the largest
reservoir in the United States, a new study has found. The
research findings, based on Nasa satellite imagery from across
the south-west, highlight the scale of the ongoing water crisis
in the region, as both groundwater and surface water
are being severely depleted. … With less
visibility has come less regulation: California only instituted
statewide management of its groundwater in 2014, and before
that, groundwater use was largely unregulated. Arizona, which
has seen big groundwater decreases, still does not regulate
groundwater usage in the majority of the state. … Since
2015, the basin has been losing freshwater at a rate three
times faster than in the decade before, driven mostly by
groundwater depletion in Arizona.
The Kern County Water Agency named two longtime employees to
run the powerful entity after the board let its general manager
go just one month before his contract was set to expire.
Administrative Operations Manager Nick Pavletich and State
Water Project Manager Craig Wallace will co-manage the agency
while a recruitment committee begins the search for a new
general manager. The two were named as interim managers after a
special meeting held Tuesday morning. Pavletich, who has been
with the agency for 24 years, will oversee local activities.
Wallace, who has worked at the agency a little more than 10
years, will oversee the agency’s statewide activities with a
focus on the Delta Conveyance Project, a
tunnel proposed to bring water beneath the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta. The agency board also announced it would form an
advisory committee of board members to work with the
co-managers “to ensure stability.”
The Kings Subbasin is not hitting the brakes after a
near-average Water Year 2024. Building on the momentum of the
historic 2023 water year, Kings Subbasin groundwater agencies
remain committed to driving long-term sustainability under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)
through local action and coordination. According to the most
recent Annual Report, Water Year 2024 (October 1, 2023 to
September 30, 2024) brought slightly above-average surface
water diversions, reaching approximately 108% of the Kings
River’s long-term average. Though not as abundant as the year
before, 2024 was classified as a near-average year in terms of
water availability. This marked a return to more typical
conditions after 2023’s wet year.
As the Colorado River’s giant reservoirs have declined during
the last two decades, even larger amounts of water have been
pumped and drained from underground, according to new research
based on data from NASA satellites. Scientists at Arizona State
University examined more than two decades of satellite
measurements and found that since 2003 the quantity of
groundwater depleted in the Colorado River Basin is comparable
to the total capacity of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest
reservoir. The researchers estimated that pumping from wells
has drained about 34 cubic kilometers, or 28 million acre-feet,
of groundwater in the watershed since 2003 — more than twice
the amount of water that has been depleted from the river’s
reservoirs during that time.
All of the legal motions that can be filed, have been filed in
the state’s appeal of a preliminary injunction that has kept it
from implementing sanctions against growers in Kings County.
The next step could be oral arguments, or not. It all depends
on how the justices at the 5th District Court of Appeal decide
to go forward. … The Farm Bureau sued the state Water
Resources Control Board after it placed the region, known as
the Tulare Lake subbasin, on probation in April 2024. Under
probation, farmers would have had to meter and register their
wells, paying an annual $350 fee to the Water Board, report
extractions and pay the state $20 per acre foot pumped. So far,
those sanctions have been held at bay after a Kings County
Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction, finding
the Water Board had overstepped its authority.
Water credits, farm equipment, a piece of the
farm itself. These are some of the assets farmers have sold
this year to finance their operations. Typically, many
farmers take out yearly operating loans to pay for labor,
fertilizer, fuel and other input costs, and then they pay back
the loans after harvesting and selling their crops. But as the
farm economy struggles, lenders have pulled back, and some
farmers are liquidating assets to continue
farming. “What’s happened is the working capital—those
loans—just dried up,” said Bill Berryhill, who farms in
Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties. “It’s a little
tough to farm without any operating money.” … In
addition to low commodity prices and high farming costs,
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act has impacted lending and pushed some growers to
sell land, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
For decades, drilling a well in the Salinas Valley and its
outlying rural communities has required only one bureaucratic
step – applying to the county’s Environmental Health
Bureau for a ministerial permit and paying a one-time fee. But
with the advent of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (SVBGSA) in 2017, that paradigm was no
longer sustainable. In the years since forming following
California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
SVBGSA has been collecting data and creating reports to send to
the state Department of Water Resources to show proof the
region is on track to meet SGMA’s requirements to achieve
groundwater sustainability by 2040. If the Department of Water
Resources doesn’t think a GSA is effectively doing that, it is
empowered to step in and take over the process, which is the
worst-case scenario for stakeholders who want to retain local
control over managing their groundwater.
… Arizonans across the state are facing rapidly declining
groundwater. Many officials, lawmakers, residents, and
conservation advocates say stemming the loss is urgent for
communities—and wildlife, too. In 2025, the Arizona Department
of Water Resources took an unprecedented step to declare the
Willcox groundwater basin a new “active management area” (AMA)
under the 1980 water law. The designation requires that large
groundwater consumers in (some parts) of Arizona report their
use, prohibits drilling large new wells and the expansion of
irrigated farmland, and sets goals to cut withdrawals over
time. Many now want to see that momentum spread statewide.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers recently introduced
bills that would end Arizona’s era of unlimited groundwater
extraction.
After two bruising seasons of low nut prices, rising costs and
groundwater uncertainty, the 2025 Trends in
Agricultural Land & Lease Values report from the California
Chapter of [the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural
Appraisers] paints a mixed — but not uniformly bleak — picture
for the Central San Joaquin
Valley. … SGMA clarity is
improving underwriting. With 86 of 93 Valley subbasins now
operating under approved sustainability plans, lenders and
buyers have a clearer — if still tough — playbook for
evaluating long‑term water budgets, replacing
the uncertainty discount with risk‑based pricing. As PPIC
water‑policy director Ellen Hanak reminds growers in the
California Farm Bureau Ag Alert, “The law doesn’t say you have
to end overdraft overnight. You can get there gradually over
the 20 years — so long as you avoid ‘undesirable results’ along
the way.”
A California winery was served with a cease-and-desist letter
after inspectors found that “excessive rates” of wastewater
produced by the winery threatened Fresno drinking water due to
high levels of toxic chemicals, records show. Early this
month, the Central Valley Water Regional Quality Control Board
issued E. & J. Gallo Winery a cease-and-desist after the winery
violated groundwater limitations set by water regulators, the
Fresno Bee reported Thursday. The letter, which was reviewed by
SFGATE, capped wastewater discharges at Gallo’s Fresno winery
at 5610 East Olive Ave. at no more than 54.2 million gallons
per year. But records show that the winery disposed 400 million
gallons of treated and untreated wastewater on its property
annually.
Over the last decade, California has faced droughts, wildfires,
and rising temperatures that all underscore the importance of
carefully managing the surface and groundwater that irrigates
more than 9 million acres of California farmland and supplies
water to 40 million Californians. In a new special issue of ARE
Update, the authors assess the current impacts of the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA),
analyze competition for scarce water allocations throughout the
Colorado River Basin and the successes of federal water
conservation projects in the basin, and consider how the
history of tribal water rights for surface water in California
differs from that of other western states, with implications
for future groundwater policy. … ARE Update is a
bimonthly magazine published by the Giannini Foundation of
Agricultural Economics.
A group of farmers, ranchers and rural municipalities are going
to court to try to stop Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes
from pursuing her lawsuit to halt the pumping of groundwater by
a Saudi-owned alfalfa farm. An attorney for the Arizona Farm
and Ranch Group Coalition says they fear other farms in the
future could be sued for their pumping of Arizona’s underground
aquifers. Mayes is relying on a largely untested legal theory.
She argues the company Fondomonte is creating a public nuisance
due to the amount of groundwater it is pumping at its farms in
La Paz County. She says the amount they are pumping has dried
up nearby wells and has resulted in land subsidence. The
coalition worries the outcome of the case could overturn
existing water regulations and could be a dangerous expansion
of public nuisance laws. But the real purpose behind the new
court filing, attorney David Brown said, is the fear that if
the attorney general wins in court, “this case is just the
beginning.”
The Porterville Irrigation District board of directors voted
unanimously to launch a second version of its own groundwater
sustainability agency Tuesday, May 13. … This the latest
in a string of steps for the district, which voted in late
September to break away from Eastern Tule GSA following the
state Water Resources Control Board’s decision to place the
Tule subbasin on probation for lacking a groundwater plan that
would bring aquifers into balance by 2040. Hoping to escape the
metering requirements, well registration, and pumping fees that
come with probation, Porterville ID and several other districts
bailed out of Eastern Tule. Porterville ID initially
agreed to partner with the City of Porterville to form a new
GSA citing overlapping boundaries, the city’s proven track
record on fixing domestic wells and its storage capacity at
Lake Success east of town.
Central Valley water regulators want the world’s largest winery
to stop using its wastewater on local crops — a decades-old
waste management practice — because it’s threatening Fresno’s
drinking water supply. The Central Valley Water Regional
Quality Control Board issued a tentative Cease and Desist Order
to E. & J. Gallo Winery in March for allegedly violating 2015
waste discharge requirements. … The stipulated order
says the winery at Olive and Clovis avenues is “threatening to
adversely impact groundwater beneath the Facility.”
Specifically, Gallo’s practice of applying some of its
untreated wastewater from the grape crush and press process
directly to 400 acres of local cropland has resulted in
concentrations of nitrate and other contaminants above
allowable levels. The city of Fresno is directly impacted by
the winery’s wastewater practices because it relies on
groundwater downgradient of the winery for its municipal
drinking water.
A reduction in state funding for a Visalia-based nonprofit is
creating a lot of angst among groundwater agencies and
prompting hushed conversations about who should get the bill
when domestic wells go dry. The issue is highly sensitive as
the state Water Resources Control Board holds both the purse
strings to fund emergency water responses and the hammer over
agencies trying to get groundwater plans approved under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
Most south San Joaquin Valley groundwater sustainability
agencies (GSAs) have created programs funded by growers to
address domestic well issues caused by overpumping. And they’ve
contracted with Self-Help Enterprises, the
south valley’s go-to nonprofit for contaminated or dry wells,
to run those programs.
Groundwater is the only source of water for the city of
Ridgecrest, the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and
the farms and businesses located throughout the Indian Wells
Valley. At current pumping rates, this basin will likely run
out of water within 40 years. That may seem like an issue for
future leaders. Yet the longer the problem is ignored, the more
difficult it will be to solve. And this problem has been
ignored for decades. This situation is not exclusive to the
Valley — aquifers around the world, in places ranging from
Spain and Chile to Iran and China, are among those experiencing
rapidly dropping groundwater levels. But according to recent
research published in the science journal Nature, the Indian
Wells Valley Basin is one of a handful of California regions
experiencing some of the world’s most rapidly declining
aquifers.
This alert provides an overview of the ongoing implementation
of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). It
details the status of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs),
recent and pending actions by the State Water Resources Control
Board (SWRCB or State Board) concerning probationary
designations, developments regarding fee and reporting
exclusions, SGMA-related litigation, and pertinent legislative
activity. … The outcomes of current and future
probationary proceedings, particularly for critically
overdrafted basins, alongside the results of pending
litigation, will have far-reaching implications for groundwater
management across California. The SWRCB’s upcoming decision
regarding the Chowchilla Subbasin may offer a precedent for
other basins that demonstrate substantial GSP improvements and
proactive engagement.
… With New Mexico water sources expected to become
increasingly strained by more demand and shrinking supplies
from a hotter, drier climate, the relationship between oil and
gas and its wastewater has sparked a major policy debate in the
past few legislative sessions and in the (New Mexico Water
Quality Control Commission’s) rulemaking. The state’s oil
and gas production generates billions of gallons of wastewater,
which is extremely salty and can include radioactive materials
and heavy metals from underground; chemicals used in the
fracking process; or cancer-causing or toxic compounds mixed in
from the oil and gas, such as benzene. Gov. Michelle Lujan
Grisham has floated using treated oil and gas wastewater in
manufacturing and other industries in her Strategic Water
Supply proposals, but lawmakers stripped produced water from
the final bill.
After a four-year downward trend, U.S. farm bankruptcies are on
the rise again, and with uncertainties about the impacts of
U.S. tariffs on export trade, there’s growing concern that the
financial health of farms across the country will continue to
falter. A total of 216 U.S. farms filed for Chapter 12
bankruptcy last year, up 55% from 2023. With 17 filings,
California led the nation. … Arshdeep Singh, a Fresno
County citrus grower and director of the Punjabi American
Growers Group, said there is no support for California farmers
in the San Joaquin Valley who have been financially pummeled by
impacts of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act. Some have filed for bankruptcy or are
on the verge of it as their land value has plummeted and their
equity has evaporated, with banks calling on their loans.
A prolonged spell of relatively warm and dry conditions across
California is rapidly melting the state’s snowpack into creeks,
streams and rivers. Hot weather this week will accelerate
the melt. Several rivers fed by snowmelt, mainly in central and
southern Sierra Nevada, are expected to hit their spring peak
flows in the coming days. The Merced River at Pohono Bridge and
the Tuolumne River at Hetch Hetchy, both in Yosemite National
Park, are forecast to reach maximum flow on Sunday. It’s
not just above-average temperatures driving the melt, but that
in tandem with direct, strong sunlight warms up the snowpack
said David Rizzardo, hydrology section manager at the
California Department of Water Resources. … Snowpack is
critical for water resources because it remains frozen away
until the dry late spring and summer months.
The company that sells Arrowhead brand bottled water has won a
court ruling overturning a decision by California water
regulators, who in 2023 ordered it to stop piping millions of
gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen Jr. said in
his ruling that the State Water Resources Control Board’s order
went “beyond the limits of its delegated authority.” The board
had ordered the company BlueTriton Brands to stop taking much
of the water it has been piping from water tunnels and
boreholes in the mountains near San Bernardino. … The judge
… said the legal question was “not about water rights,” and
he cited a provision stating the board does not have the
authority to regulate groundwater.
A recently released technical report concludes that the sinking
of land in the Central Valley due to over-pumping of
groundwater, referred to as subsidence, has restricted the
amount of water the State Water Project (SWP) can deliver in a
year by 3 percent. By 2043, if no action is taken, the current
trajectory of subsidence, combined with climate change, could
reduce deliveries by 87 percent. … The technical report,
an addendum that builds on the Delivery Capability Report (DCR)
released in 2024, analyzed the capability of the SWP to deliver
water under both current and potential future conditions in the
year 2043. The new findings underscore the importance of
eliminating groundwater overdraft in the Central Valley and
repairing existing damage to the state’s main water-delivery
arteries.
In November 2024, powerful gusts whipped across parts of the
Central Valley. The winds not only knocked out power, but they
also kicked up soil particles, producing a massive dust storm.
The extreme weather event dropped visibility to near zero,
grinding highway traffic to a halt. Scientists expect dust
storms in California to occur even more often in the future,
due to climate change and human activities like construction
and agriculture. … The Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act may have also increased the
chances for dust storms. The act, passed in 2014, limits the
overdraft of groundwater in order protect groundwater basins in
the long term. It has caused farmers to take some fields out of
production due to decreased water access.
A decade after the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
became law, many California farmers still feel lost in the
bureaucracy surrounding its implementation. A new study finds
that, despite widespread awareness, real engagement remains
low. According to research from CSU-WATER — an initiative
encompassing 23 California State University campuses —
significant logistical and representational barriers have
prevented farmers from meaningfully engaging with their
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. The research is part
of SGMA WAVE — short for Water and Valley Economy — a project
led by CSU-WATER, a water policy initiative involving all 23
CSU campuses. The study focuses on 72 GSAs across the San
Joaquin Valley counties of Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and
Kern.
For the first time, scientists have mapped groundwater
variables nationally to understand which aquifers are most
vulnerable to contamination from orphan wells. Oil and
gas wells with no active owner that are no longer producing and
have not been plugged are considered orphan wells. These
unplugged wells can create pathways for contaminants like
hydrocarbons and brine to migrate from the oil and gas
formation into groundwater zones. … USGS scientists Joshua
Woda, Karl Haase, Nicholas Gianoutsos, Kalle Jahn and Kristina
Gutchess published a geospatial analysis of water-quality
threats from orphan wells this month in the
journal Science of the Total Environment. They found that
factors including large concentrations of orphaned wells and
the advanced age of wells make aquifers in Appalachia, the Gulf
Coast and California susceptible to
contamination.
… As we’ve been reporting, the Kern groundwater subbasin
could be put under probation. On Thursday, local water
officials met to discuss how to fix the problem. The Kern
River Groundwater Sustainability Agency is just one of 20 GSAs
(Groundwater Sustainability Agencies) in the Kern County
subbasin. They are working with the Kern County Water Agency,
Kern Delta Water District, the City of Bakersfield, and many
others to keep the Kern subbasin from going into probation
under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
*IMPORTANT* In anticipation of high demand, the Foundation will be allocating tickets via a lottery method with a maximum of 3 entrants per organization. To enter, please thoroughly review the tour details below so you’re fully aware of the time and financial commitments, then complete this entry form.
Entrants selected via the ticket lottery will be contacted beginning on June 12 with an opportunity to register for the tour. Tickets will be released in batches over time, so you may not hear right away.
This special, first-ever Foundation water tour will not be offered every year! Join us as we examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to
help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater
basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process
to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of
Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached
flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California
Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be
temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the
SWRCB permit.
How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the
San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers?
Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare
County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot
groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining
growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley
who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them
maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and
groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is
tight.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The 3ʳᵈ International Conference, Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: Linking Science & Policy took place from June 18 – 20. Organized by the Water Education Foundation and the UC Davis Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair, the conference provided scientists, policymakers, agricultural and environmental interest group representatives, government officials and consultants with the latest scientific, management, legal and policy advances for sustaining our groundwater resources in agricultural regions around the world.
The conference keynote address was provided by Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist and author of books chronicling agriculture and water issues in California’s Central Valley. Arax comes from a family of Central Valley farmers and is praised for writing books that are deeply profound, heartfelt and nuanced including The Dreamt Land, West of the West and The King of California. He did a reading from his latest book The Dreamt Land and commented on the future of groundwater in the Valley during his keynote lunch talk on June 18.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Hwy
Burlingame, CA 94010
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
An online
short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by University of California, Davis and
several other organizations in cooperation with the Water
Education Foundation, will be held May 12, 19,
26 and June 2, 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
The San Joaquin Valley has a big
hill to climb in reaching groundwater sustainability. Driven by
the need to keep using water to irrigate the nation’s breadbasket
while complying with California’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, people throughout the valley are looking for
innovative and cost-effective ways to manage and use groundwater
more wisely. Here are three examples.
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Since 1997, more than 430 engineers,
farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, and others have graduated
from our William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program. We’ve
developed a new alumni network
webpage to help program participants connect and keep in
touch.
An
online short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by UC Davis and several other organizations in
cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, will be
held May 21 and 28, June 4, 18, and 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
A diverse roster of top
policymakers and water experts are on the
agenda for the Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit. The conference, Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning, will feature compelling conversations
reflecting on upcoming regulatory deadlines and efforts to
improve water management and policy in the face of natural
disasters.
Tickets for the Water Summit are sold out, but by joining the waitlist we can
let you know when spaces open via cancellations.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
California experienced one of the
most deadly and destructive wildfire years on record in 2018,
with several major fires occurring in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI). These areas, where communities are in close
proximity to undeveloped land at high risk of wildfire, have felt
devastating effects of these disasters, including direct impacts
to water infrastructure and supplies.
One panel at our 2019 Water
Summit Oct. 30 in Sacramento will feature speakers
from water agencies who came face-to-face with two major fires:
The Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise in
Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire in the Southern
California coastal mountains. They’ll talk about their
experiences and what lessons they learned.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Atmospheric rivers, the narrow bands
of moisture that ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to
the West Coast, are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full.
However, some of them are dangerous because the extreme rainfall
and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and damage, much
like what happened in 2017 with Oroville Dam’s spillway.
Learn the latest about atmospheric river research and forecasting
at our 2019 Water
Summit on Oct. 30 in Sacramento, where
prominent research meteorologist Marty Ralph will give the
opening keynote.
With a key deadline for the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in January, one of the
featured panels at our Oct.
30thWater
Summit will focus on how regions around California
are crafting groundwater sustainability plans and working on
innovative ways to fill aquifers.
The theme for this year’s Water Summit, “Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning,” reflects critical upcoming events in California
water, including the imminent Jan. 31, 2020 deadline for
groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high- and
medium-priority basins.
Our event calendar is an excellent
resource for keeping up with water events in California and the
West.
Groundwater is top of mind for many water managers as they
prepare to meet next January’s deadline for submitting
sustainability plans required under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. We have several upcoming featured
events listed on our calendar that focus on a variety of relevant
groundwater topics:
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Groundwater replenishment happens
through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for
direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water
conservation, recycled water, desalination and water
transfers.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Sinkholes are caused by erosion of
rocks beneath soil’s surface. Groundwater dissolves soft
rocks such as gypsum, salt and limestone, leaving gaps in the
originally solid structure. This is exacerbated when water is
acidic from contact with carbon dioxide or acid rain. Even
humidity can play a major role in destabilizing water
underground.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
The United States
Geographical Survey (USGS) defines freshwater as containing
less than 1,000 milligrams per liter dissolved solids. However,
500 milligrams per liter is usually the cutoff for municipal and
commercial use. Most of the Earth’s water is saline, 97.5
percent with only 2.5 percent fresh.
Springs are where groundwater becomes surface water, acting as openings
where subsurface water can discharge onto the ground or directly
into other water bodies. They can also be considered the
consequence of an overflowing
aquifer. As a result, springs often serve as headwaters to streams.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Extensometers are among the most valuable devices hydrogeologists
use to measure subsidence, but most people – even water
professionals – have never seen one. They are sensitive and
carefully calibrated, so they are kept under lock and key and are
often in remote locations on private property.
During our California
Groundwater Tour Oct. 5-6, you will see two types of
extensometers used by the California Department of Water
Resources to monitor changes in elevation caused by groundwater
overdraft.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
Alluvium generally refers to the clay, silt, sand and gravel that
are deposited by a stream, creek or other water body.
Alluvium is found around deltas and rivers, frequently
making soils very fertile. Alternatively, “colluvium” refers to
the accumulation at the base of hills, brought there from runoff
(as opposed to a water body). The Oxnard Plain in Ventura
County is a visible alluvial plain, where floodplains have
drifted over time due to gradual deposits of alluvium, a feature
also present in Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue looks at remote sensing applications and how satellite
information enables analysts to get a better understanding of
snowpack, how much water a plant actually uses, groundwater
levels, levee stability and more.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled through Inland
Southern California to learn about the region’s efforts in
groundwater management, recycled water and other drought-proofing
measures.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled from the
Sacramento region to Napa Valley to view sites that explore
groundwater issues. Topics included groundwater quality,
overdraft and subsidence, agricultural use, wells, and regional
management efforts.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Statewide, groundwater provides about 30 percent of California’s
water supply, with some regions more dependent on it than others.
In drier years, groundwater provides a higher percentage of the
water supply. Groundwater is less known than surface water but no
less important. Its potential for helping to meet the state’s
growing water demand has spurred greater attention toward gaining
a better understanding of its overall value. This issue of
Western Water examines groundwater storage and its increasing
importance in California’s future water policy.
This issue of Western Water examines the issue of California
groundwater management, in light of recent attention focused on
the subject through legislative actions and the release of the
draft Bulletin 118. In addition to providing an overview of
groundwater and management options, it offers a glimpse of what
the future may hold and some background information on
groundwater hydrology and law.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
Seawater intrusion can harm groundwater quality in a variety of
places, both coastal and inland, throughout California.
Along the coast, seawater intrusion into aquifers is connected to overdrafting of
groundwater. Additionally, in the interior, groundwater
pumping can draw up salty water from ancient seawater isolated in
subsurface sediments.
Overdraft occurs when, over a period of years, more water is
pumped from a groundwater basin than is replaced from all sources
– such as rainfall, irrigation water, streams fed by mountain
runoff and intentional recharge. [See also Hydrologic Cycle.]
While many of its individual aquifers are not overdrafted,
California as a whole uses more groundwater than is replaced.
The treatment of groundwater— the primary source of drinking
water and irrigation water in many parts of the United States —
varies from community to community, and even from well to well
within a city depending on what contaminants the water contains.
In California, one-half of the state’s population drinks water
drawn from underground sources [the remainder is provided by
surface water].
Groundwater management is recognized
as critical to supporting the long-term viability of California’s
aquifers and protecting the
nearby surface waters that are connected to groundwater.
California has considered, but not implemented, a comprehensive
groundwater strategy many
times over the last century.
One hundred years ago, the California Conservation Commission
considered adding groundwater regulation into the Water
Commission Act of 1913. After hearings were held, it was
decided to leave groundwater rights out of the Water Code.
California, like most arid Western states, has a complex system
of surface water rights
that accounts for nearly all of the water in rivers and streams.
Groundwater banking is a process of diverting floodwaters or
other surface water into
an aquifer where it can be
stored until it is needed later. In a twist of fate, the space
made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the
banking activities used so extensively today.
When multiple parties withdraw water from the same aquifer,
groundwater pumpers can ask the court to adjudicate, or hear
arguments for and against, to better define the rights that
various entities have to use groundwater resources. This is known
as groundwater adjudication. [See also California
water rights and Groundwater Law.]
If California were flat, its groundwater would be enough to flood
the entire state 8 feet deep. The enormous cache of underground
water helped the state become the nation’s top agricultural
producer. Groundwater also provides a critical hedge against
drought to sustain California’s overall water supply.
In years of average precipitation, about 40 percent of the
state’s water supply comes from underground. During a drought,
the amount can approach 60 percent.
For something so largely hidden from view, groundwater is an
important and controversial part of California’s water supply
picture. How it should be managed and whether it becomes part of
overarching state regulation is a topic of strong debate.
In early June, environmentalists and Delta water agencies sued
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kern
County Water Agency (KCWA) over the validity of the transfer of
the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground reservoir that supplies
water to farms and cities locally and outside the area. The suit,
which culminates a decade-long controversy involving multiple
issues of state and local jurisdictional authority, has put the
spotlight on groundwater banking – an important but controversial
water management practice in many areas of California.
Groundwater, out of sight and out of mind to most people, is
taking on an increased role in California’s water future.
Often overlooked and misunderstood, groundwater’s profile is
being elevated as various scenarios combine to cloud the water
supply outlook. A dry 2006-2007 water year (downtown Los Angeles
received a record low amount of rain), crisis conditions in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the mounting evidence of climate
change have invigorated efforts to further utilize aquifers as a
reliable source of water supply.
When you drink the water, remember the spring. – Chinese proverb
Water is everywhere. Viewed from outer space, the Earth radiates
a blue glow from the oceans that dominate its surface. Atop the
sea and land, huge clouds of water vapor swirl around the globe,
propelling the weather system that sustains life. Along the way,
water, which an ancient sage called “the noblest of elements,”
transforms from vapor to liquid and to solid form as it falls
from the atmosphere to the surface, trickles below ground and
ultimately returns skyward.
Traditionally treated as two separate resources, surface water
and groundwater are increasingly linked in California as water
leaders search for a way to close the gap between water demand
and water supply. Although some water districts have coordinated
use of surface water and groundwater for years, conjunctive use
has become the catchphrase when it comes to developing additional
water supply for the 21st century.
